Title: In search of the missing: Evidence for and against unpronounced syntactic structure
Elliptical phenomena pose a challenge to the simplest theories of the syntax-semantics interface: they involve determinate local meanings without the usual syntactic pieces that produce those meanings. How these meanings are assigned intersects with a purely syntactic question: is there syntax in ellipsis sites? In this talk, I review some of the most compelling evidence about unpronounced structure—both for (lower origin effects, agreement, case, P-stranding, voice matching in sluicing) and against (absence of island effects in sluicing, voice mismatches in VP-ellipsis). I also present some new data from code-switching in English-Greek (including new Warner facts, such as “*I’m America, and so can you!”) and experimental results from Spanish-German code-switched sluicing and from English voice mismatches that can be accounted for straightforwardly if the ellipsis identity condition contains a syntactic component.
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